The Orange Button
by BellatrixLestrangey
Summary: One shot: Lotor's team acquire a machine that allows them to glimpse at alternate realities. Acxa takes the opportunity to observe an alternate firebending version of herself.


Acxa never imagined that watching herself in a parallel universe would be such a horrible feat. To know that some version of her somewhere was hurting so much. A version of her that didn't even realize that she was okay elsewhere. "It's really nifty!" Ezor assured her. "It's like…it's well." She paused. "I don't know what it is, but you have to try it." Acxa was reluctant and regretted letting go of that hesitance. Maybe Ezor happened upon a charming world where things were fine and dandy for her. But Acxa was witnessing an alternate reality wherein, she had lost everything. A reality where she didn't even have Ezor…if the other girl even was an alternate version of her perky friend. Acxa bit her lip, glad that no one was around to see her discomfort as she watched the other version of her. The girl was on the ground sobbing. Sobbing over a bitter defeat, everything she'd lost, and with fear. It had to be fear. This version of her—the version everyone in that world called Azula—had just spoke to a woman who wasn't, from what Acxa gathered, even around any longer. She'd sliced off a good chunk of her hair and banished pretty much everyone on sight. Acxa's stomach turned, you would have to be afraid and confused to do something like that.

She felt bad in feeling relieved that, that was not _her_ reality. Well it was her's, but not _her's_. Acxa groaned to herself, she really detested these discussions of alternate realities. She would have to give Ezor an earful for baiting her into this.

She fixed her eyes back on the screen, all the while cursing the machine that made the viewing possible. Granted it was useful for somethings such as seeing the many routes one's decision can lead. It had helped her avoid a good plenty of realities where she would have fallen either dead or humiliated.

Her other self…Azula…probably could have used one of those. Not that her reality had anything even remotely close to it.

Not a hand extended to comfort the screaming girl. And for a moment Acxa considered reaching out. She weighed the pros and cons of pushing the large off-orange button labeled, 'do not press unless authorized'. The button that would wrench her from her own reality and throw her into the one on the screen.

Azula shook and trembled a weak and venerable mess of nerves and anxiety. Acxa found it difficult to grasp feeling that way in any reality, when in this one she had felt nothing even remotely close to it. The closest she'd ever been to her other self was when she was trapped within the Weblum—frozen in a comatose state. She'd had dreams in that span of time, dreams that felt like much more than that, and probably were. Within the Weblum she'd bridged the two worlds however briefly. One moment she was being trapped, the next she was out in a rolling green field. She felt the trill of a chase and watched as the world rolled passed while she whizzed by in a tank. She had a distinct mission—to bring back…the Avatar? Acxa couldn't quite recall who that was, or if she even had the title right. She vividly remembered the feeling of excitement. She never did get to see if she managed to capture the Avatar though. She had awoken so abruptly and had no time to even contemplate the weight of what she'd just witnessed. Perhaps Azula had.

Implying that Azula dreamt of her at all.

Somewhere deep down, Acxa knew that she did. She wondered if that version of her even thought it was possible that there was another version of her out there, traversing the stars. And did she have an opinion on the lifestyle Acxa carried out? She imagined that Azula would be rather pleased—the two were rather alike. There was no mistake at all that the two were different versions of the same soul.

Acxa found it hard to imagine that she was looking at the same girl as she did in her dream. But there was no mistaking it. It was her. Those vivid golden eyes, the way she spoke, the way she dressed, her mannerisms. Even in her madness it was still there, small visages of the time before she'd snapped. More than anything else, Acxa hoped that the girl in that reality would end up okay.

She knew with certainty that she couldn't be happy in every reality. But she hoped, perhaps irrationally, that _this_ alternate her wouldn't be one of the unfortunate ones.

"Acxa, I'm going to need your assistance." Came Lotor's smooth voice.

With one last glace at the screen and the girl on it—who had completely worn herself out to the point of lying limp and silent—she clicked the machine off. As she pressed the button she mused to herself, _oh I'll definitely give Ezor an earful for this one._

She couldn't help the thought that came to her mind. But as per usual, there were things to be done, so she couldn't dwell on that right now. But she would eventually; maybe within the hour, maybe in a few days' time. Either which way she would considered it eventually—the possibility that maybe in some reality she did hit the orange button.


End file.
